The tournament schedule, the first rounds for the Italians and big names such as Alcaraz and Djokovic, the highest prize money in Slam history. Everything you need to know about the last Major of the year

New York will be the capital of world tennis for the next few weeks. On Sunday, August 24, the US Open, the last of the four Slams of the season, will kick off. On the weekend of September 6 and 7, when the women’s singles (Saturday 6) and men’s singles (Sunday 7) finals will take place, the dominant player of the last year of tennis could be confirmed or a new world No. 1 could be crowned. We are, of course, talking about Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, the big favorites, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the draw. The Spaniard will make his debut on Monday, August 25, against the American Opelka. Our Jannik will play on Tuesday, August 26, against the Czech Kopriva.

Vit Kopriva, Sinner’s opponent, is ranked No. 88 in the world and is currently enjoying the best moment of his career, despite being born in 1997. In June, he reached his best ranking, No. 78, after winning his first Grand Slam match at Roland Garros. The match against Sinner will be his debut at the US Open, where he has never even made it past the first qualifying round. Read here for a complete analysis of the draw.

The first rounds for the Italians—  In addition to Sinner, who is awaiting the end of qualifying, there are seven other Italians in the main draw. Lorenzo Musetti, No. 10 in the draw and on Jannik’s side, will make his debut against the great French server Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard; Flavio Cobolli, who could face Musetti in the third round, will open the proceedings against a qualifier, seeded 24th. Lorenzo Sonego (No. 35), in Sinner’s eighth, will make his debut against Australian wild card Tristan Schoolkate. The others are all in the lower half. Starting with Luciano Darderi, seeded No. 32, who will open the proceedings against Australia’s Rinky Hijikata. He will be followed by Matteo Arnaldi (who has slipped to No. 62) against 19th seed Francisco Cerundolo, Mattia Bellucci (No. 63) against the up-and-coming Chinese player Juncheng Shang, and finally Luca Nardi. After his great performance in Cincinnati, the Pesaro native arrives in New York ranked No. 83 and will face the toughest first-round match among the Italians against No. 21 Tomas Machac.

 

The first rounds for the Italians—  The women’s contingent is decidedly smaller, with only three players directly in the draw. Jasmine Paolini, No. 7 and placed in a very tough quarter (read here for the women’s draw), will make her debut on Louis Armstrong on the night between Sunday, August 24, and Monday, August 25 (1:00 a.m. Italian time) against a qualifier. The same fate befell Lucia Bronzetti, No. 56 in the WTA rankings, who is in Paolini’s eighth but could face No. 9 seed Elena Rybakina in the second round. Things went much worse for world No. 84 Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who faces a very tough first round against the inconsistent but dangerous Kazakh Yulia Putintseva.

The first rounds of the big names—Novak Djokovic, seeded seventh, will make his debut at 1:00 a.m. Italian time on the night between Sunday, August 24, and Monday, August 25, against ATP No. 48 Learner Tien on Arthur Ashe. Carlos Alcaraz, with a time to be confirmed, will also play on August 25, opening his campaign against the dangerous home favorite and big server Reilly Opelka. World No. 3 Alexander Zverev, who is on Sinner’s side of the draw, will open the tournament against No. 126 Alejandro Tabilo. The Arthur Ashe program will kick off on Sunday at 6 p.m. Italian time with Ben Shelton (seeded No. 6) against a qualifier, followed by world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka against Rebeka Masarova. No. 2 Iga Swiatek and No. 3 Coco Gauff will make their debuts against Ajla Tomljanovic and Emiliana Arango, respectively.

The prize money—  The 2025 US Open will also be a historic tournament from a financial point of view. It will offer the richest prize money in tennis history, with a total of $90 million, 25% more than last year. It will be divided as follows for the singles tournaments:

  • winners: $5,000,000
  • finalists: $2,500,000
  • semifinalists: $1,260,000
  • quarterfinalists: $660,000
  • round of 16: $400,000
  • third round: $237,000
  • second round: $154,000
  • first round: $110,000

Where to watch the US Open on TV—  Like last year, there will be two ways to watch the fourth Grand Slam of the year on television. SuperTennis, the FITP broadcaster, will not only guarantee coverage of the best matches, the Italian players’ matches and a wealth of analysis and commentary on its channel (64 on digital terrestrial television), but will also broadcast up to nine courts on the SuperTennix streaming platform. Free for FITP members, otherwise €1.99 per month. The alternative is Sky, which will offer coverage on seven dedicated channels, showing seven different courts, as well as the usual pre- and post-match analysis and commentary, broadcast several times throughout the day.

The schedule—  As mentioned, the US Open will start on Sunday, August 24, for the first time in its history. Below is the schedule, with the daily division and respective rounds, of the tournament until the final:

  • Sunday, August 24-Tuesday, August 26: first round
  • Wednesday, August 27 and Thursday, August 28: second round
  • Friday, August 29 and Saturday, August 30: third round
  • Sunday, August 31 and Monday, September 1: round of 16
  • Tuesday, September 2 and Wednesday, September 3: quarterfinals
  • Thursday, September 4: women’s semifinals
  • Friday, September 5: men’s semifinals
  • Saturday, September 6: women’s final
  • Sunday, September 7: men’s final

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